Improvement in fire-place grates and hearths



F. STITH.

Fire-Plac Grates and Hearths. No.l5l,726. PatentdJuri-eQ,1874..

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FERDINANDO STITH, OF MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE.

TIMFROVEMENT m FIRE-PLACE GRATES AND HE-ARTHS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 151,726, dated June 9,1874; application filed June 19, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, *ERDINANDO STITH, of Memphis, in the county ofShelby and State of Tennessee, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Hearths, of which the following is a specification:

The object of my invention is to produce a hearth which shall dispensewith the ordinary trimmer-arch or hearth-sustaining arch and] sand-box,and enable the grate-basket of open fire-places to be set low downwithout the ex cessiv'e complication and great cost attending thepresent method, and which shall as well besimple, safe, durable,permanent, comfortable, cleanly, ornamental, portable, and easily set,and incidentally to dispense with the dirtaccumulating andheat-obstructing fender, which is an indispensable accessory of thepresent or ordinary hearth, both to conceal the ash-pan and cover theaccumulated ashes and sweepings, and to guard from falling and rollingcoals the floor and other adjacent combustible parts of the building.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of myhearth with its surroundings as set, a portion of the cover beingremoved to show the inside and bottom of the basin more clearly. Fig. 2is a vertical transverse section, taken on the line A B of Fig. 3- 4,through the middle of the fire-place, the basin, and the lid, andshowing also a grate-basket as it may be set low down with my hearth.Fig. 34 is a front View of the entire outline of my hearth and of agratebasket as it may be set low down therewith, and is divided by theline A B into two figures, of which Fig. 3 is a front view of one-halfof my hearth-basin. Fig. 4 is a vertical longitudinal half-section of myhearth-basin without the lid, taken on the line C D of Fig. 2.

A cast-iron tray-shaped hearth-basin, A, is made with its sides at thefront and ends curving easily into its bottom, so as to radiate into theapartment the light and heat reflected from the lower portion of thefire, and about five inches or the thickness of two bricks, as laid, indepth, or of such depth as may be desired, provided, however, the bottombe not so lowas to endanger or in any way injure the with thebrick-work, or,.as technically expressed, to Work to even brick, therebyto obviate the cutting of brick. The bottom a of the basin extendsrearward beyond the general body of the basin, and into the fire-recessor fire-place proper, and where it rests on a ledge, B, of thebrick-work projecting from the chimney-back, and on ledges G and Dprojecting from the jamb-sides of the recess. The

basin is further supported by a lug, F, extending from the back of eachside of the basin, and inserted into mortar-lines of the jambfronts, asw m, Fig. 3-4; or, instead of a lug on each side of the basin, it may besupported by flanges or lips resting on ledges projecting from thejamb-fronts. It will be seen that this basin, being simply placed or setin and on the hearth-hole and the masonry, may be readily removed,if.for any reason desired. The sides of the basin are returned at Ftoward the rear end, so becoming a continuation of the lug R, or oftheir substituted flange, as the case may be, and serves, by beingsufficiently in close contact with the jamb-side, to prevent the passageof fire from the basin and between it and the brick-work to anycombustible part below or outside the basin, so as to endanger thebuilding, the passage of fire from the hold of the basin around theedges of its extended bottom being prevented by its bearing on thesupporting-ledges projecting from the rear of the recess andfrom thejamb-sides.

The basin is further supported and held in place by a lip or rim, M,extending along the front and ends of the hearth-hole, and resting ontheflooring on the framing-timbers. This lip, rising above thefloor-surfaces, serves to guard the carpet-edge from fire and excessivewear, and, being rounded on its upper side, permits sweeping to beeasily made over it. A

continuation downwardof the inner side of this lip forms, with the upperedge of the basin'side, a rabbet, H, of Fig. 4, continuing place, butsuch is not the practice.

also along the rear side of the basin, as at K, in which rabbet rests alid or cover.

The usual method of preparing for the setting or laying of hearths,either of brick or stone or of other slab, is to either build within thehearth-hole and the fire-recess a trimmerarch or sustaining-arch ofmasonry, or to fit there a wooden bottom, so as to make, with the framedsides of the hearth-hole and with the chimney and fire-recess, asandbox, to be filled or partly filled with sand, or clay, or earth, asa bed to bear the hearth itself, of whatever material made. This arch,either from faulty workmanship, or as a chance result of shocks orsevere usage acting on it, or on the parts by which it is sustained, orsometimes even as a result of unequal settling of the building; and" thechimney, is liable to some slight fracture or parting, and the woodenbottom, from the protracted drying and con.- sequent shrinkage to whichit is exposed, is liable to open at its joints and connections, when ineither case the filling, having become deprived of its moisture by theinevitable heat and drying to which it is subjected, is diminished inbulk, so as to fail of the sup port it was intended to give, and so alsosuch infinitessimal particles as may have been held in coherence by theinherent moisture of the filling, reduced now to impalpable dust, passesof itself or influenced by sudden jars from the box through minute andimperceptible fissures, aided in its escape by the operations of mice,roaches, and other vermin who there find accessible and acceptableharbor, until the displacement of the hearth-bearing filling permits theslab to break, or warp, or settle, for want of continuous support, orthe brick hearth to settle in unsightly and dirt-gatherin ginequalities, either defection irremediable except by an entire removalof the hearth itself, and a renewal of the sandbox and its filling; or,finally, the passage of fire is admitted to some combustible partexposed by such giving way, and which, by the nature of itssurroundings, is practically inaccessible for extinguishment. It is truethat this escape of the sand-box filling might be to some extentobviated by using some composition of plaster or cement to solidify it,and so keep'it in A movable lid or cover, V, of open-work, preferably ofcast-iron, having its upper surface about level with the floorsurface,and about onehalf inch in its general thickness, thickened, if need be,at its edges for increased strength, resting in the rabbet or groove KH, and covering the main body of the basin, concealing the unsightlyash-p an and the sweepin gs, which fall through the interstices of itsopen-work and into the hearth-basin. These interstices, in addition totheir faculty of giving an ornamental character to the lid, so becomingopenwork, and of effectin g a decrease of its weight,

desirable forbetter facilitating its removal, and also of the allowanceof unrestricted expansion when heated, so as to prevent its cupping orwarping from shape, or its tightening in its rabbet, serve the moreessential purpose of rllowing ready passage into the apartment of thelight and heat radiated from the lower portion of the fire into the bodyof the basin, and of admitting full supply of air to the fire, thebasket being set as preferred, either considerably above thefloor-level, as now with the ordinary fiat hearth is necessary to insurebelow its supply of needed air, or, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3-4, withits bottom bars near or below the floor-line in the low-down manner,obviously preferable, because so 10 eating the heat at the feet, wheremost needed, and so retarding, to some extent, the evolved in itsnatural tendency to rise, and so escape utilization. To admit the freedropping of ashes and cinders into the hold of the hearth-basin, andalso to facilitate the dislodgment of accumulating ashes clogging thelower grate-bars, the rear side of the lid, in'- stead of extending intothe fire-recess or of continuing directly across its front, is in frontof the grate and of the recess U, curved outward and forward, so as toleave about two inches of open space between the front line of the grateand the rear line of the lid, where may be made ready insertion and freeuse of a bent poker for clearing away the ashes between the bottomgrate-bars, and so the whole lire-recess and that portion of the basinunderneath and in the immediate front of the basket being left free oflid, the falling ashes, coal, and cinders are received into the hold ofthe basin or in the ash-pan placed in it. By slightly raising from therabbet in which it rests the front edge or side ofthe lid, it may bedrawn forward so as to give ready access to the hold of the basin forthe removal of its contents, and so in like manner, on leaving atoo-full grate, the lid being drawn forward, any falling coals will bereceived more surely and securely into the hold of the basin.-

The combination of my depressed or trayshaped hearth-basin with itsair-permeable lid gives a facility of setting and a certainty of thesatisfactory operation of the preferable method of low-down grates, andma manner more simple and inexpensive and free from the need ofattention while in use than by the usual complicated under-draft system,with its necessary hearth and accessories of pipes and registers andfittings, or than has been heretofore otherwise attained.

I do not broadly claim a metal hearth, or a low-down or baSc-burnin ggrate supplied with air from below, or a receptacle for ashes andswecpings below the floor or the fire-place, for all these are of commonuse; nor do I claim the lid design shown, nor confine myself in my lidshown to any special design or character heat I of design, or open-work,or to any specific form or dimensions or proportions, either in myhearth-basin or in its lid.

2. In combination with the concave hearth A and low-down grate, adetached hearthplate, recessed as described, to leave a space in frontof the grate, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

F. STITH.

Witnesses:

W. W. W. HODGE, W. B. BUTT.

